TITLE: WHY STUDY THE MINISTRY OF JESUS CHRIST
SERIES: THE INCOMPARABLE MINISTRY OF JESUS THE MESSIAH
TEXT: JOHN 21:24-25; LUKE 1:1-4
Introduction: As we continue studying the reasons for examining the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, we discover Luke’s desire for us to have a perfect understanding of all things. Considering the various denominations and cults that have arisen over the years, we can understand why Luke had such a desire. After all, the only reason we have denominations is the fact that we do not agree on various details of doctrine. Even within denominational structures, there are often many varieties of understanding. And even within a local congregation there are various beliefs that stray from the accepted tenets of the faith.
A perfect understanding, then, is not going to be discovered through denominational (or non-denominational) examinations. It will only come by studying the life and ministry of the One who got it all right, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray that He will open our hearts and minds so that we can have the perfect understanding that Luke speaks about.
III. TO GAIN A PERFECT UNDERSTANDING OF HIS LIFE, HIS DEATH, AND HIS RESURRECTION.
Luke 1:3
3 it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus,
Luke 24:44-49
44 Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." 45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
46 Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 And you are witnesses of these things. 49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."
EXAMPLES OF “MODERN” CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
1. NEO-ORTHODOXY.
a. Denies the inerrancy and inspiration of the Scriptures; the writers simply wrote their interpretation of the word of God.
b. Believes the Bible to be a medium of revelation (while orthodox believes it is revelation) and is therefore dependent upon the experience and personal interpretation of each individual.
c. Truth is a mystical rather than concrete fact.
d. Truth is defined as that which is relevant to my experience, compared to the orthodox approach that states that truth is concretely stated in the Word of God.
e. Scripture is not the only form of revelation; but revelation can be directly obtained from God (a word of knowledge).
2. LIBERAL THEOLOGY.
a. Liberal theology includes a number of philosophical religious movements from the 18th to the 20th century that subscribe to the freedom of thought and belief associated with the Age of Enlightenment.
b. Liberal theology questions deeply held Christian doctrines such as Biblical inerrancy and the Trinity.
i. The Bible is considered a collection of documents containing the human authors beliefs and feelings about God at the time of their writing – within a cultural and/or historic context.
ii. The Bible is a collection of narratives that explain, epitomize, or symbolize the essence and significance of Christian understanding.
3. POST-MODERN CHRISTIANITY.
a. Post-modern Christianity is about experience over reason, subjectivity over objectivity, spirituality over religion, images over words, outward over inward.
b. Experience is valued more highly than reason, and truth is relevant.
c. Truth is not absolute (and the Bible is not a source of absolute truth) but determined by our personal experiences.
i. If the Bible is not our source for absolute truth, and personal experience is allowed to define and interpret what truth actually is, a saving faith in Jesus Christ is rendered meaningless.
ii. We don’t let our experiences interpret Scripture for us, but as we change and conform ourselves to Christ we interpret our experiences according to Scripture.
4. THE JESUS SEMINAR.
a. The "Jesus Seminar" was begun by New Testament "scholar" Robert Funk in the 1970s.
i. It was Mr. Funk’s desire to rediscover the "historical Jesus" that had been hidden behind almost 2000 years of Christian traditions, myths, and legends.
ii. The Jesus Seminar was created to examine the biblical gospels and other early Christian literature to discover who Jesus truly was and what He truly said.
iii. The Jesus Seminar was (and still is) comprised primarily of "scholars" who deny the inspiration, authority, and inerrancy of the Bible.
iv. The agenda of the Jesus Seminar was not to discover who the historical Jesus was.
v. Rather, the purpose of the Jesus Seminar is to attack what the Bible clearly teaches about who Jesus is and what He taught.
b. A recent publication of the Jesus Seminar is a work that goes through the four gospels and the false gospel of Thomas - and proceeds to determine what Jesus truly said and taught.
i. It divides Jesus’ words from the gospels into categories based on how likely it is that Jesus truly said them.
a) Words in red indicate words that Jesus most likely said.
b) Words in pink represent words that Jesus possibly said.
c) Words in grey indicate words that Jesus likely did not say, but are close to what He might have said.
d) Words in black represent words that Jesus definitely did not say.
ii. It is interesting to note that in this work from the Jesus Seminar there are more words in black than in red, pink, and grey combined.
iii. Almost the entire gospel of John is in black.
iv. It is absolutely ridiculous, even offensive, to think that a group of "scholars" today can more accurately determine what Jesus did and did not say than the authors of the gospels, who wrote in the same century in which Jesus lived, taught, died, and was resurrected.
c. The "scholars" of the Jesus Seminar do not believe in the deity of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the miracles of Christ, or the substitutionary atonement death of Christ.
i. Perhaps most significant, they deny that the Holy Spirit is the author of all Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16-17), having moved the minds and hands of all the writers (2 Peter 1:20-21), and having preserved its message, its meaning and its accuracy down through the centuries.
ii. Since the Jesus Seminar does not believe these Christian doctrines, they relegate anything that Jesus is recorded as saying about them as "black."
iii. Essentially, the agenda of the Jesus Seminar is, "I do not believe Jesus is God, so I am going to remove anything that records Jesus saying or teaching that He is God from the gospels."
iv. The claim that the purpose of the Jesus Seminar is to "discover the historical Jesus" is false and misleading.
v. The true purpose of the Jesus Seminar is to promote the Jesus that the Jesus Seminar believes in instead of the Jesus of the Bible.
5. THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL (WORD OF FAITH).
a. A teaching within neo-pentacostal and charismatic churches that health and prosperity are promised to all believers, and are available through faith.
b. They teach that physical healing was included in Christ’s atonement, and therefore is available now for all who believe (based on Isaiah 53:5).
i. Many of the more prominent Faith preachers teach that believers should overlook the symptoms of sickness, and positively believe and confess that they are already healed.
ii. Most do not advocate dispensing with medical treatment, but some claim to be strong enough in the faith that they no longer need medicine.
c. According to this theology, financial prosperity and wealth was also included in the atonement (based on 2 Corinthians 8:9).
d. Most disturbing is the teaching that Jesus died spiritually.
i. In order to atone for sins, Jesus had to die both physically and spiritually.
ii. As a consequence of His dying spiritually, Jesus had to be born again just as any sinner.
iii. The doctrine asserts that Jesus’ bodily sacrifice was but the beginning of the atonement, which continued with Jesus’ suffering in Hell.
iv. Jesus took on humanity’s "satanic" nature, and was "born again" in Hell.
6. THE EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT.
a. The Emerging Church is the newest trend sweeping through modern Christianity.
b. The Emerging Church Movement seeks to engage the unchurched and the post-churched by tearing apart and reconstructing Christian beliefs, standards, and methods to accommodate post-modern culture.
i. Proponents of this movement call it a "conversation" to emphasize its developing and decentralized nature as well as its emphasis on interfaith dialog rather than verbal evangelism.
ii. The predominantly young participants in this movement prefer narrative presentations drawn from their own experiences over biblical exposition.
iii. A “testimony meeting,” therefore, becomes the basis for their beliefs as they give more consideration to personal experience than to biblical authority.
iv. They reject the belief that the Bible contains any mention of absolutes.
c. They believe the Scriptures are unclear and beyond human understanding, and that a systematic study of the Bible is impossible.
i. Narrative explorations of faith, Scripture, and history are emphasized in emerging churches over exegetical and doctrinal approaches (such as that found in systematic theology and systematic exegesis).
ii. Systematic study is seen as a relic of modernism born out of the view that cross-cultural absolutes could be found.
iii. Emergents embrace the postmodern concept that we can only relate the narratives that cause a person or group to believe in the values they do.
d. The movement publicly advocates ecumenism though they admit to being intolerant of theological conservatives who view the authorial intent in Scripture as having absolute authority for doctrine and practice.
i. Emergents espouse an open, flexible, and subjective view of doctrine in which they embrace a continual reexamination of theology which causes them to see faith as a journey rather than a destination.
ii. This is a natural consequence of their rejection of certainty in faith.
iii. Some emerging leaders claim to "hold in tension" even radical differences in doctrines and morals.
iv. This openness leads many of them to extend an invitation to "open minded" people of all religions and social backgrounds to contribute to the dialog or conversation.
v. Some emergents see theology as merely an icon pointing to God rather than as a definition of God that has a 1 to 1 correspondence to "what is."
vi. For most emergents this means they do not see any doctrinal expositions as definitive.
e. For the emergents, the Bible takes on a personal meaning as they experience it, but it has no authoritative meaning such as authorial intent to distinguish a right from wrong interpretation.
i. Likewise, emergents allow for a plurality of Scriptural interpretations.
ii. They exhibit a particular concern for the effect of the modern reader’s cultural context on the act of interpretation in contrast to the emphasis of historical orthodoxy on the primacy of the author’s intent and cultural context.
f. Emergents favor the sharing of experiences and interactions such as testimonies, prayer, group recitation, sharing meals and other communal practices, which they believe are personal and sincere over "scripted" interactions such as evangelistic preaching and exegetical bible teaching.
g. The movement’s participants claim they are creating a safe environment for those with opinions ordinarily rejected within historic orthodoxy.
i. Rejecting the historical Christian approach to prophetic proclamation of scriptural dogma, emergents see their non-dogmatic inclusiveness as "faithful responsiveness to the church’s prophetic impetus."
h. Such a worldview leads emergents to:
i. Unorthodox theology.
ii. Relativism - humans can understand and evaluate beliefs and behaviors only in terms of their historical or cultural context.
iii. Antinomianism - idea that members of a particular religious group are under no obligation to obey the laws of ethics or morality as presented by religious authorities.
iv. Universalism - a religion and theology that generally holds all persons and creatures are related to God or the divine and will be reconciled to God.
a) A church that calls itself Universalist may emphasize the universal principles of most religions and accept other religions in an inclusive manner, believing in a Universal reconciliation between humanity and the divine.
b) Other religions may have Universalist theology as one of their tenets and principles, including Hindu, and some of the New Age religions.
v. Syncretism - the blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system, or the incorporation into a religious tradition of beliefs from unrelated traditions.
i. Their theology is just another branch of liberal theology that has historically been at odds with Christian fundamentalism and Evangelicalism.
i. Emergent theologians generally share the views of classic liberals, but they arrive at these positions through a subjective journey rather than the objective one pursued by classic liberals.
ii. For example, while classic liberals will reject the notions of sin, atonement, and judgment because of their anti-supernatural presuppositions, emergents will reject these same concepts because of they just don’t like such teachings.
iii. Emergents sometimes see themselves as bridging the divide between evangelical Christianity and liberal Christianity.
iv. Their attempts, however, serve only to recast Christianity into the mold of a hostile, postmodern, philosophical system.
7. NOTICE THE COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF EACH OF THESE “THEOLOGIES.”
2 Peter 2:1-3
2 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
a. They attack the inerrancy and/or the perspicuity (clarity) of the Scriptures.
2 Timothy 3:14-17
14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
b. They utilize non-biblical sources in determining their theological positions.
i. Sola scriptura (Latin ablative, "by scripture alone") is the assertion that the Bible as God’s written word is self-authenticating, clear (perspicuous) to the rational reader, its own interpreter ("Scripture interprets Scripture"), and sufficient of itself to be the final authority of Christian doctrine.
ii. Sola scriptura was a foundational doctrinal principle of the Protestant Reformation held by the reformer Martin Luther and is a definitive principle of Protestants today.
iii. Sola scriptura may be contrasted with Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox teaching, in which the Bible must be interpreted by church teaching, by considering the Bible in the context of Sacred Tradition.
Hebrews 4:12-13
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
2 Peter 1:19-20
19 And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation,
1 John 5:9
9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.
1 Thessalonians 2:13
13 For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.
Revelation 1:1-2
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants — things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw.
Hebrews 1:1-3
1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
John 1:1-4
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
c. They attack the deity of Christ.
John 8:58
58 Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."
Hebrews 1:8
8 But to the Son He [God] says:
"Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.
Conclusion: Though many would teach us that we cannot understand the Bible, that its truths are beyond our comprehension, and that there are really no absolutes, the Bible says otherwise. If we will esteem the Bible as the inerrant, infallible Word of God, we will, like Luke, come to a perfect understanding of all things. If, however, we do not believe the Bible is the absolute, perfect standard of Almighty God, we will continue to wander in unbelief and doubt. The promises of the Bible are true and attainable, but only if we believe it.
